on Instagram, leave a comment on the project that you wish to nominate and use the hashtag #ewcpotm (short for “EWC project of the month”).

We’re going to choose from those nominations but we can’t guarantee that any of them will come up in a vote because we have no idea how many projects will be sent in. The projects don’thave to be posted in that particular month.

Please introduce yourself to our readers: Where are you from?
Together with my wife I live in a small village called Gasselternijveen, in the North of the Netherlands, near Groningen. We moved to this place 12 years ago and enjoy it very much.

What do you do when you’re not in the workshop,
When I’m not in my workshop or working in our (vegetable) garden, I work for the Dutch Government as a Customs Specialist.

How old are you and for how long have you been practicing woodworking as a hobby?
I’m born on November 22 in 1966, so that makes me technically 50 years old, and although my mind doesn’t agree with that age, my body reminds me of it all to often.

My father was a carpenter and as soon as I could walk I was in his workshop looking what he made and hammering nails in some leftover pieces of wood. Unfortunately my father died when I was 18 , would have been very nice to make furniture and other things with him.

The first major project I made by myself was a extra high bed for me and my wife, when she was expecting our first son.

How did you come to do woodworking and what’s your motivation to practice this hobby?
Good question, why woodworking? As a trained electrician with some experience in welding, I prefer wood. From the nearly 18 years a training in woodworking by my father, I know a thing or two about wood. I love the way a project grows in your hands and the freedom of using all the different ways to make things.

I am very fortunate to have my workshop in my garage, attached to my house, so I can go there, enjoy my workshop, and leave everything as it is, close the door and come back later. I like to be alone in my workshop to “reload” for the next day at work.

Why do you share your projects on the web?
With the videos I make I hope to inspire people to make things and share my knowledge and the things I learn while doing the projects.

What photo/video equipment do you use and why? If you make videos, what’s your typical workflow for a video?

To make my videos I’m using my mobile phone. I have some action cameras, but the video quality is not so good.

My video workflow starts with coming up with a project subject, mostly something I need or my wife needs, something for my workshop or one of the nice challenges on YouTube. Sometimes I make a sketch in a notebook, most of the time it’s a drawing on my whiteboard. Making the project mostly happens on Saturday, with the editing of the video on Saturday evening or Sunday morning.

Do you have a favorite tool? If so, what do you like about it?
As a workbench can be considered a tool, than that would be my first choice. Next would be my bench chisels and my Veritas Dovetail saw. I also love my planes, the regular No 4, 5 or 6, but also my special planes for rabbets and dados. This week I bought a new Brass back tenon saw, can’t wait to put that thing to work.

English version of Crazytimber’s story

I didn’t make the project for any particular reason. I needed a video for my YouTube channel and so I looked around my wood storage to find something to make. I saw the piece of plum and thought: “This could turn into a nice bowl with a nice reddish hue”. At this point I didn’t know that the blank contained an ingrown piece of wire.

The most important Material is, of course, the blank of plum wood – for turning you don’t need anything else.

I didn’t use that many machines, either. The main machine was my Elektra Beckum DHM 1000 lathe. I also used various turning chisels and a cordless drill with a sanding kit to sand the surface.

After picking the blank I roughly cut it to shape with the chainsaw and clamped it into the lathe. Then I turned the outside shape and sanded it. After that I turned the bowl around and used a Forstner bit to drill out the inside of the bowl. Now I started hollowing out the shape and came on the ingrown piece of wire, which made turning the bowl a lot harder. At the end I sanded everything up to a fine grit and gave the bowl its finish with a mixture based on bee’s wax. Now the bowl was finished!

When I start turning a piece I don’t have a plan for the final product. What a blank turns into usually emerges in the process of turning it so I didn’t have any expectations for this project either. I’m very pleased with the result, though. I like that it contains this ingrown piece of wire – something like that makes a piece unique. Looking back, I wouldn’t do anything differently – everything worked out and that’s always the main thing.

Saturday, 08.07.2017 at 16:00 h (CET) there will be an Instagram livestream with some updates on the developments of the European Woodworking Community. You can ask questions about the community, give us feedback or just hang out with other community members or people interested in our community.